1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to vibration isolators, and more particularly to a tunable stacked metal plate vibration isolator used for damping vibrations in an electrical device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Within this application several publications are referenced by Arabic numerals within brackets. Full citations for these publications may be found at the end of the specification immediately preceding the claims. The disclosures of all these publications in their entireties are hereby expressly incorporated by reference into the present application for the purposes of indicating the background of the invention and illustrating the general state of the art.
Generally, vibration isolation optimization involves reducing the magnitudes of acceleration transmitted from moving components of devices, machines, structural systems, mountings, etc. to supporting devices, structures, and foundations, etc.[1] Similarly, vibration isolation optimization involves reducing the support motion transmitted to instruments, equipment, or peripheral devices of an overall system.[1] When the forces generated by moving components of a system are transmitted to other components (instruments, etc.) in the system, undesirable vibrations are often generated in the entire system, wherein instruments and equipment can malfunction and suffer extreme damage through failure if not properly isolated from the vibration source.[1] Usually, vibration isolators use elastic material such as cork, rubber, urethane, or neoprene to provide damping to the system.[2]
The electronic components in an artillery shell are often subjected to significant vibrational energy, which causes deleterious effects on the electronic component itself and attached elements. In order to reduce the vibration level experienced by the electronic component, damping mechanisms which isolate the vibrational energy are used. There are many forms and varieties of conventional vibration isolators. However, these conventional devices are not easily tunable without additional machining and, in fact, often require complex machining. Moreover, many of these conventional devices use elastomers. Unfortunately, the use of elastomers introduces significant temperature dependence for efficient performance. Such extreme temperature requirements often result in degradation of the vibration isolator when operated over a wide temperature range or of the electronic component itself.
Therefore, due to the limitations of the conventional vibration isolator devices and processes, there remains a need for a novel vibration isolator device, which does not use elastomers, is compactly sized, and is easily tunable, and which provides proper vibration isolation to an attached device.